3 thoughts on “memomes”

I’m new to the concept of memes and, perhaps naively, wonder whether memes are generally useful. Based on the following quote:

“If a gene is defined as the smallest discrete unit of genetic inheritance, so a meme should be defined as the smallest discrete unit of cultural inheritance. Just as your genome is sum of all the genetic components that comprise an individual, so the memome is the sum of all the memes and meme complexes you have inherited and been transmitted.”

Memes are based on genes, but recent scientific research has reported that it is hard “to be sure about what, if anything, a gene actually is.”

What, if anything, is a meme? At least with genes, one can point to something that is produced by it, can you do the same with a meme? Would somebody provide examples of one meme producing a single cultural response?

I visited Wikipedia and searched for memetics and the entry was interesting. It seems many of the original meme champions have left for greener pastures. Maybe the questions “What is a meme?” and “How does it help?” aren’t easy to answer.